Monday started off rough. Of late, I have been feeling rotten more and more - this after a stretch of very good months. Indeed, by mid-day yesterday, I was feeling like creeping death. If I had eaten, I am quite sure the grub would have made the return trip by the way it came. I decided to head home and try to sleep it off. The super bummer was that this wave of illin' meant I was gonna have to cancel my & the kid's visit to our first Meetup for Oakland Dog Walkers up at Sibley Park. Thankfully, God had mercy on me and after sleeping for the duration of the afternoon, I woke up feeling only the headache part of the earlier misery. Since walking has long been one of my home cures for the type of headaches I get (persistent, low-level activity like walking warms up the muscles and loosens them up, which undoes the vice grip they have on my poor melon), I decided to try to go on the walk. The worst that would happen is I would feel too rotten, and we could just come back. Again, God is a merciful God and eventually, the vice opened up and I started to feel better and better as we went. This was most serendipitous because the walk itself proved to be a good call for the kid as well.
As I have said many many times, I think the East Bay Park District (mostly Alameda and Contra Costa counties) is the best in the country. They not only are blessed with incredible beauty, they also seem genuinely concerned with facilitating real enjoyment of it for people in a wide range of interest groups. The National & State Parks are not particularly dog-friendly, for example, whereas the EBPD has created several awesome parks we visit often. Among my favorite locales in the park system is the back of the East Bay hills, which is mostly used as watershed and remains largely wild (though surrounded by urban/suburban development.) Because the watershed and park areas are so large, it is quite possible to feel like you are the middle of nowhere when in truth you literally are smack in the middle of a major metroplex. It is just one of the things that makes life in NorCal particularly enjoyable for me.
Since people here really do actively recreate in these parts, it wasn't tough to find a Meetup group dedicated to taking the doggies out into the Wild East Bay. My dog is not a bad dog, but at his size, he definitely does better with smaller dogs than bigger ones. This is natural, and I understand, but my hope is to make him happier around bigger dogs, or at least more comfortable around them. The only way to do this is to spend time with them and correct him if he goes astray. I feel bad using the rest of the group as my test subjects, but I gave them fair warning and told them not to be shy about telling us to hit the road if he yaps too much. The group was cool about it, and actually seemed to get a chuckle out of Boom-Boom's handful of outbursts aimed at the big doggies in the pack.
At his size, even his most violent outbursts aren't a threat to anyone or anything, which has made it so that some people enjoy getting the kid all wound up or get a chuckle out of seeing him growling and sneering with other dogs. I sorta understand, but in spending time with him, I realize that really isn't what he is about, and for him to be whipped up into a frenzy like that isn't any fun for him at all. For that reason, I try to keep him from having little explosions, and I definitely try to stop others from whipping him up. We do have some play time that involves "rough-housing", but that is only with his toys. When he is with people or other dogs, I have tried to get him to keep it cool, which isn't so tough since he generally prefers to keep it dialed-down. The kid simply prefers to sniff and do his leg-liftin'. Taking him out for an off-leash walk in a pack of unfamiliar dogs in which he was certain to be the runt might have proved to be asking for trouble, but I have to say, for the most part, he was excellent.
He did still have a few barking fits, growled at one of the puppies a few times, and ran in circles barking at any dogs having fun running around without him, but he did much less of it than I had expected. He is capable of getting along with bigger dogs, and even making friends, but it tends to be relatively high risk. After a few moments of ugly, we settled in and ended up getting along with the pack swimmingly. I am quite encouraged.
I think we are going to hustle so that we can join in the group walks at least a few times a month. It is tough to get from the city out to the trails too early, but it seems that the kid will do best by being out in a pack of pooches of all sizes. He makes dramatic improvement in his socializing every week. We have been putting quality time in at the doggie parks for just this purpose, but I think a walk in a mixed pack is even better for gittin' his mind right.
Come winter time, the super hot parts of the state will be cool enough for the kid to enjoy (no doggies go hiking in 100 degree heat - only dumbasses like me do that.) Come winter, we will explore the southern part of the state a little more. For now, having so many trails nearby is a big help. It is chilly up top here for 9 months of the year, but for dogs, the weather is totally perfect.
My kiddo gets chilled as easy as he overheats. He has black fur on his back, which makes hot sun uncool for him. He lacks hair of any color on his undercarriage, so a brisk breeze off of the ocean freezes his weenie and necessitates we put a doggie sweater on him. Last night was just right. Eventually, we got high enough that we were above the fog layer, and that was a little breezy and chilly, but by then, our bodies were well warmed up from the walking. As I had hoped, a walk to loosen up was what I needed to kick the last of my maladies from earlier. The kid seemed to have a bit of the runner's high when we were done, so I am pretty sure the workout hit the spot for him too. We both slept like lambs not long after getting home, and I woke up feeling 100% better than yesterday. It may just be a local thing with people walking their dogs, but what is local around here is world class scenery. While seeing that the kid benefits socially and physically from the treks is our primary purpose, there is something bigger and life-affirming in having a garden variety (or worse) Monday end this way. It reminds me that in spite of problems I may wrastle with, I also have things pretty good.
Posted by rudayday at May 19, 2009 07:08 AM